"Yes mom, I'll be careful. Bye, yeah love you too." I said finishing my conversation with my mom. I put my cell phone in my pocket as I continued down the side walk toward the convention center. 'I cant believe I'm actually going to comic-con! I wish I could have dressed up as something though. Really sucks that I can't make anything recognizable, oh well, going as a normal eighteen year old dude works just as good. Though I do wish I could have afforded more than one ticket, Dad would have loved this.' I was shaken from my thoughts as I passed a alley way. Three thugs had a man that looked to be a lawyer or something backed against the wall.
"Give us all your money and the stuff in the briefcase!" The man proceeded to empty his pockets. When they were practically turned inside out he unlocked the black leather box. I walked away before I saw any more. I wanted to help that guy, I really did, but I learned at young age that if you try to be the hero, you end up making things worse for yourself.
'I never thought that there would be so many people that are cosplaying! Sure I've seen crowds online of this, but I thought most of them ended up taking the costume off after a while.' As I walked through the convention center I passed some Deadpools, a few batmen, a couple of Harley Quinns that couldn't have been over twelve, one really convincing Scorpion, and a lot of weird old fat guys dressed as female characters.
As I made my way passed the crowds I started looking at the stalls to see what kind of souvenirs I could get, I only had twenty bucks so it would have to be cheap. I saw one dude trying to push beanie baby's at really inflated prices, another selling overwatch memorabilia, 'Wouldn't he do better selling that stuff at BlizzCon?' a guy selling what he claimed to be first edition comics, but I saw a few preaching the same thing, and a woman selling old action figures, but nothing had really caught my eye.
Then I saw a relative bland stall that was nothing but a white fold-out table, but the merchandise on the table was interesting to me because it was all merchandise from my favorite games, anime, and comics. There was nobody manning it so I decided to window shop a little bit before they got back. On one part of the table was Kamina's glasses and cape, Simon's goggles and drill bit, and a replica of Yoko's sniper rifle. At the back against the wall were replicas of the Master sword, Zelda's bow, and Ghirahim's sword. Then on the other part of the table was Batman's utility belt, Flash's helmet, and Aquaman's trident. I picked up the trident and spun it around a little. 'Nah, Aquaman sucks.' I placed it back on the table and noticed some thing that I didn't see before. Off in the corner of the table was a small black ring box. I picked it up and tried to see if it was marked. It wasn't, so I opened it. On the white cushion was a Green Lantern ring. It's band was metallic green, the circular plate that housed the insignia was black and the insignia itself looked like it was made of emerald.
"See something you like?"
"AHH" A man dressed as the Merchant from resident evil had some how snuck up on me. He started laughing a little.
"Sorry for startling you my friend. I take very light steps. But anyway, were you interested in any of my wares?"
I studied him for a moment.'Wait I've heard rumors about this guy. Anyone who buys any thing him ends up disappearing.' I looked back at the ring. 'Rumors are normally never true, right?' "Um, yeah. How much for the ring?"
"Fifteen dollars." he said 'Only fifteen dollars? Must not be real emerald.'
"Wait, if your dressed as a character from Resident Evil, wouldn't it make more sense if you sell stuff related to Resident Evil?"
"Do you want the ring or not?" Clearly I had ticked him off.
"Yeah, sorry." I fished my wallet out of my pocket and handed him the money. I put the ring on my finger and started to walk away.
"Pleasure doing business with you.... Leo." 'I never told him my name, how? I turned around to question him but he was gone, as if he vanished in to thin air. 'Well the rumors were right about him being creepy and why am... I.... So..... Tired'
I awoke to the moonlight hitting my face through the trees. 'Moon light? Trees? As I got up and looked around, I saw that I was in a dark forest. Judging by the height of the moon, it was midnight. 'So is this what happens to people who buy things from this guy? He kidnaps them and dumps them in a forest?! Then I started talking to myself, as you do in frightening situations, or that could be just me.
"Well, jokes on you creep, I was a Boyscout. Granted I never made it passed tenderfoot, gah, don't say that out loud. He probably has cameras and microphones all around here to see how long his victims last. Alright what did he take?" I frisked myself, only to find that I still had all my stuff, including the ring. "Alright, I guess the thing is that if I survive I keep it? Never mind that now, I have to find a way out of here. First I have to find a light source." I looked around and noticed that the forest was pitch black except for the little clearing I was standing in, illuminated by the moonlight. "Wait, my cell phone, I can call somebody, I'm such an idiot." I said mentally kicking myself. I took out my phone and noticed two things. First I had no signal and second, it was suppose to be two thirty in the morning. "If its two in the morning, then why is the moon in the midnight position? I mean, I guess it could be another time zone, or my phone is wrong, or both. Well that's something I can figure out later, right now I need to find my way out of this forest." I looked at my phone again and checked the battery. "Seventy six percent, that should be enough to have the flashlight last a little while." I tapped the flashlight icon and the back of my phone illuminated the area around me. As I moved the light around I saw a little path in one direction, I couldn't tell which, but it was clearly a path.
After a while of walking I noticed that my phone said it was now three AM, but the moon was still in the midnight position. I probably should have questioned why, but at the moment I was more focused on finding a way out of the forest. I continued down the path and saw some nasty looking bramble on the edge of it. I had no intention of straying from it, the bramble just cemented those feelings.
SNAP
I had almost jumped out of my skin. I looked around and noticed that I had just stepped on a twig. "Look at yourself Leo scared of a twig, that you stepped on." I sighed and continued down the path. Then I thought I heard the sound of logs knocking into each other. I thought I had just kicked a dried branch, but I looked around and the path was totally clear, so what made that sound? I heard it again and immediately turned the light towards the source of the sound, I had caught a glimpse of something pass by the trees but I wasn’t sure what. Then almost immediately my slow and careful hike turned into a brisk jog, hoping I wouldn't find out what it was that I had seen. It could have been a rabbit for all I know but I decided better safe than sorry.
GGGRRRRR
I stopped out of utter fear. ’Come on legs, move, normally you run when scared, not stop dead, like I could be in a few seconds.’ The only movement could get my body to do was turning toward the growling. What I saw was terrifying and a little strange. In front of me was a large wolf, made from logs and small branches. Leaves in the place of eyebrows and sticking out from behind the sticks that made up its ‘ears’. Sharp shards of wood made up its claws and fangs, the latter was not dripping with saliva though, it was dripping tree sap instead. Lastly in the cavities where its eyes would be were glowing green lights. ‘No way, am I in..... No that’s impossible. This is just an elaborate.... Mechanical... Thing, he must have played Knack too much or something.’
Before I had the chance to contemplate things any further the big wooden creature pounced. I put up my arms from reflex, though I knew that would do nothing to stop it from eating me, or whatever a wooden wolf does to its prey. I closed my eyes and prepared for the worst. But it never came. I opened my eyes to see a glowing green, translucent shield I the wolfs mouth instead of me. A thin string of ..... whatever it was connected to the shield in it's direct center. Following the "string" I saw it was coming from the ring I bought at the convention.
"No way." I said dumbfounded. Turning my attention back to the life or death situation I noticed that the more the wooden beast clamped down on my glowing shield, it started cracking. "Okay, think, what else can I do with this then, alright then." I said realizing what I could. I focused and the shield dissipated making the beast snap its jaws in a rather comedic way. I held out my right hand and a blast of pure green light shot from the ring hitting my attacker in the face. The wolf flew backwards and shattered in to a assortment of wooden pieces. "Aw, I wanted a mini-gun."
Before I could ponder why the ring only shot a laser instead of creating the item I thought of, the logs started glow with the same sickly green light that made the wolf's eyes. "Yeah, your not staying down are you? Well I'm not staying to find out." I bolted in the detection I was originally going, at least I think I did. "Wait why am I running, I should be able to fly now right? Well considering that I can't make constructs flying might be out of the question." I soon heard something running behind me and coked my head to look back. The wooden wolf had reformed and brought two friends. "Okay, this can't get worse right?" At that moment I must have invoked Murphy's Law, because when I looked forward the trees parted just enough so that I could see a large gorge in front of me. "Oh come on, really?!" Knowing that I had the choice of either plunging to my death or being ripped in to pieces by wooden wolves, taking a chance on trying to fly might not be so bad anymore. I focused on things like birds and planes to see if that would work and surprisingly it did. I felt my feet leave the ground but I wasn't falling either. I looked down and the gorge was right below me and emerald green aura coming off me. I turned back to the wolves and they were standing at the edge of the cliff snarling. "Ha, guess you can't chase me any more you dumb pieces of firewood." I mocked. After I had said that one lunged off the cliff at me. I simply thought 'go up' and I rose a good two feet. Making the wolf sail under me and fall into the pit. "Well, I guess I can go over the trees now." As I did just that, over the trees I saw the ruins of a castle, but these ruins I knew and I thought I'd never see them with my own eyes.
"The.. The .... castle of the two sisters. Then that means those were Timber Wolves, and this is the Everfree Forest, which means I'm in Equestria, and the moon is in the midnight position which means, I'm in the premier," There was a bright flash in one of the ruined towers. "and depending on if that was the elements or the initial teleport I might be able to witness Nightmare Moon's defeat in person or at least see Luna and Celestia reunite." I just floated there for a moment contemplating my situation.
"Sweet!" I yelled as i flew towards the tower.
Author's Note
Here's my hat in the proverbial displaced ring. That's all I have to say.
The closer I flew to the tower I could hear maniacal laughing. I flew in one of the back windows and tried to hide myself behind one of the pillars. I could't see them very well but it looked like they were all standing on two legs, which was weird but I assumed that it was just because of the angle I as at.. Luckily I could still hear them due to the high ceiling making an echo. Twilight was finishing up her speech so I knew that the rainbow lasers were coming soon.
"Yes I made it in time to see Nightmare Moon's defeat. Well more like hear her defeat." Never the less, I was excited as I saw the six lights flash as the elements reformed in to the necklaces and crown respectively. Though my excitement soon left me.
"NO, I REFUSE TO BE DEFEATED LIKE THIS!" There was no question who that booming voice belonged to. A pure white magic blast hit Twilight, the only reason I knew it was twilight was because a lavender blur flew past me and landed in-front of the door leading to the staircase.
"TWILIGHT!!!" The other five girls yelled in unison.
"Without the spark the other elements are useless, if I can not destroy the element itself, I will kill the one who wields it." As the other girls ran to protect their friend I hid behind the pillar a bit further, as to prevent changing anything. "Good you're all gathering in one place. I'll kill all of you at once." I could feel the malicious intent behind those words.
Every thing seemed to slow for a moment, I could see flashes of all the times I could have helped someone or at least tried to. Every time I ignored it, all because of one time I made it worse.
'How could I make this any worse' that was the sentence that ran though my head. I felt a incredible rush of adrenaline and let my instinct take over. I ran from my hiding spot and faced Nightmare Moon. But she didn't look like I expected, instead of pitch black horse with wings and a horn, she was a human with pale skin wearing black and dark blue armor with her cutie mark on the center of the breastplate, and a roman gladiator like helmet ...... who had black wings on her back and a unicorn horn protruding from her forehead.
"Who are you? And what is that power I feel?"
Unfortunately my adrenaline high disappeared as soon as it had appeared. "Um.. my name is ... Is .... Leonardo, a-a-and that power is the power of ..... of..... GOD." 'Smooth, Leo, smooth.' "I could s-s-snap my fingers and half the life in the..... universe would disappear." 'Great now I'm stealing things from movies!'
"Then do it." she said with stoic expression.
"W-what?" There was a audible gulp.
"Do it, make half of all life disappear."
I swallowed again. "A-a-are you sure you want me to do it? You could be in the half that disappears.
"Well, we won't know until you try, right? Her stoic expression turned into a confident smile."That is unless, you're bluffing." My face went pale, I was hoping that she would buy it for a little bit at least. "Now then, get out of my sight!" Her horn started to glow a dark blue and white energy gathered in her hand. She fired it like a laser and I threw up my hand with the ring on it and a glowing green translucent dome encased me. As the blast hit the dome it bounced off and hit the wall, creating a large hole.
The adrenaline high returned after that, and it brought a bit of arrogant confidence with it. "Ha, you can't touch me." All that did was enrage her. She poured more power into her next attack and instead of bouncing off it created a small crack in the dome. My face paled again. She then fired a continuous beam aiming for the crack. It soon started to spiderweb across the dome, with small holes forming letting in small amounts of the blast, they didn't hit me, but they were close, what did hurt though was the mental strain of trying to hold the dome together, and it hurt even more when it eventually shattered. I slid back a few feet, probably wearing down my sneakers a little. She fired again and the only thing i thought of doing was firing a beam back. We were locked in a beam struggle for a few seconds. i would have thought it was really cool, if the intersection point wasn't heading straight towards me.
"Dammit I need more power."
Say the oath
"Who said that? What oath? I never took a oath." Right now my mind was more focused on trying to keep her beam from blowing me to smithereens, so my mind was almost blank. "Wait, I remember now." I closed my eyes and focused on my will power.
"In brightest day," My ring started to glow more intensely. "In blackest night," I could feel my beam get larger and push hers back a little. "No evil shall escape my sight, Let those who worship evils might, beware my power, GREEN LANTERN'S LIGHT." I felt and over whelming surge of power rush through my arm to where my ring was, I opened my eyes and there was a green tint to my vision. I saw that my beam was pushing hers back with almost no resistance, eventually launching her in to the wall. After that the beam made a u-turn and came for me.
"Shit." The green light hit me before I could say anything else.
Author's Note
Here is a short little chapter, for you guys. I swear that the next one will be longer, I'll have a lot of free time for a while so it wont take another year to come out.
